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Monday, 14 September 2015

the one that goes "I would so love to do your job; it must be so relaxing, lovely and stress free".

Now, the lady that said that came in just 5 minutes after a phone call I had received, that I relayed to her, and I shall share with you. It went like this...

Ring ring, ring ring (it rang 4 times before I answered as I was in the kitchen scrubbing a vase, but I didn't think you would need me to do the 4 :) )

I answer "Good morning, Moonstones"

Mans voice (I would love to call him a Gentleman but as you will see, he was far from one). "Yes, hello, I took flowers in last week for a woman that lives at (obviously I'm not going to share the address) and she's away, so they're sat on my table opening now, and I can't give her flowers that are open upon her return, whenever that may be"

Me; "Right, ok. Not a problem, if (he then interrupted and shouted) "Well it IS a problem for me as I have them in my house" I replied "if you had just let me finish Sir, I was going to say, I'll look the order up, so I can contact the customer who placed the order so we can get it sorted for you. What day were the flowers delivered?"

Man; "A woman knocked on my door and I took them in on Friday" Now this to me sounded a bit odd as my drivers are both males but I opened up the book and trawled through the 4 pages of orders I had for Friday, and couldn't find an order for the address the man had given me; I also didn't remember seeing it on the guys delivery sheets, but I checked them as well.

"I'm so sorry" I went back to him with, "but I don't appear to have an order for that address on Friday"

Man "It was Thursday then"

I had no order for that address on Thursday, or any other day next week (I thought I would check them all).

"Again I'm so sorry but I don't have a delivery for that address on any day" I said, "maybe the flowers weren't from my shop" I said this as I am not the only shop in the area.

Now, my use of capital bold letters is required here as he really did shout at me "OF COURSE THEY ARE FROM YOU, YOU STUPID GIRL, THEY HAVE YOUR NUMBER ON THEM"

At this point had someone else spoken to me in such a way, I probably would have been exceptionally rude back, but I run a business and am always as professional as I can be when dealing with people. In fact I have only once in 29 years been rude to a customer (that's a story for another day).

Wracking my brains at how we could have delivered flowers that I could find no trace of, it suddenly struck me that maybe someone had come into the shop, had me make up flowers for them, and the customer herself had delivered them - this would also explain why they were delivered by a woman.

Replying I said "The only other thing I can think, is someone collected them from the shop and took them over herself. Now I have many collection orders in the book for Thursday or Friday so can't help you on who may have ordered them right now" again he interrupted me "so it's not your problem then? It's for me to deal with?" "Not at all Sir, I will see what I can sort out for you my end" At this point I was thinking I would send one of my guys out to collect the flowers from him, get them to pop a note through the door of the person they were for, and would then drop some over to her when she gets back.

"Well you've already said you can't do anything you don't know who they're from so it's not your problem, it's mine"

"It does make it awkward" I said "with them not being delivered and because someone has come into the shop and collected them themselves" Before I could finish with "but I am more than happy to collect them from you and sort things out my end so you don't have to worry or be put to any trouble, he again shouted "YOU'VE ALREADY SAID THAT ONCE" and then he promptly hung up.

The lady that had originally come into the shop and uttered those immortal words looked absolutely gobsmacked, and asked me how I hadn't closed the shop, driven round to where the man lives and put him in his place? Had to explain no matter how rude someone is to us we could never be rude back. (and believe me typing our conversation can never convey just how abrupt and rude his tone with me was). Sadly rudeness is something we encounter on a daily basis - from the customer you're talking to in the shop as you take an order, who will answer their phone the second it rings and have a conversation while you stand there like a lemon waiting to get on with things, to the ones that will shout because you don't have a specific flower in stock when they want it. That's just human behavior these days unfortunately, but the lady who had said about doing the job, said she never realised just what we have to deal with on a daily basis. Don't get me wrong, 90% of the people through the door and on the phone are lovely and we are blessed with some really great customers. 50% of our day is lovely, we do get to work with some wonderful products (the other 50% is composting and stressing because the time moves quicker each second and we are constantly against the clock - just last week, I had 2 big funerals on Thursday and Friday, as well as a wedding Friday, 3 on Saturday and 1 on Sunday - no matter how hard we plan, how quick we work, or how organised we are, it can only take 1 customer to throw a spanner in our works and put us all behind on things, and when it comes to funerals and weddings we cannot afford to be even just a second later, so things can get very stressed at times)/ On the whole though it is a great job, but not for everyone. I know the lady that asked me the question went away grateful for her own job, and not wanting to be a florist any more :)